Thomas Friedman wants a revolution

Only an uprising in green technology will revive America and promote world democracy, the New York Times columnist now argues.

By Nathalie Gorman

Read more: Environment, Science, Thomas Friedman, Environment & Science, Nathalie Gorman

Sept. 24, 2008 | In his new book, "Hot, Flat and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution and How It Can Renew America," Thomas Friedman, author of the best-selling "The World Is Flat" and "The Lexus and the Olive Tree," argues that America can fire up its economy and restore its world standing by turning its considerable technological might on clean energy and conservation.

Advocating a green path to world democracy would seem to mark a new direction for Friedman, who initially supported the Bush administration "in trying to bring democracy to Iraq," he writes in "Hot, Flat, and Crowded." In a lively interview with Salon, he acknowledges his about-face on the Iraq war and outlines what he now sees as America's -- and his own -- environmental responsibilities. He looks at the current presidential candidates and explains why only one appears capable of leading a green revolution.

What does "Hot, Flat and Crowded" mean?

The shortest way I can explain it is that "hot" stands for the increase in global warming, "flat" is my metaphor for the rise of middle classes all over the world, from India to China to Brazil to Russia, who are now able to consume and produce like Americans, and "crowded" is the fact that the population of the planet in my lifetime -- I'm 55 -- has almost tripled. The year I was born, there were 2.7 billion people on the planet. If I live to be 100, there should be 9.2 billion.

When the world gets that flat and crowded, the energy, climate and natural resource implications are going to be enormous. My core thesis is we're at a perfect storm or convergence of global warming, global flattening and global crowding, and it's going to drive five mega-problems that are going to shape the 21st century: energy and natural resource supply and demand, petro-dictatorships, climate change, biodiversity loss and energy poverty. How will we answer those five problems. Who can invent abundant, cheap, clean, reliable energy? Whichever companies, countries and communities do that are going to own the next great global industry, which I call E.T., or energy technology.

You say a green revolution can renew America. What is it about America that would be renewed?

That's a good question. The thing about the energy technology industry is that it cuts across the entire economy. It can produce blue-collar jobs or green-collar jobs in either retrofitting homes or building, manufacturing and erecting geothermal plants, solar thermal plants or wind [farms]. So there's a real chance to bring manufacturing and skilled blue-collar jobs back to America. You cannot outsource a wind farm.

At the same time, the level of innovation and research to achieve these new technologies is a moonshot quality. It's the kind of thing that can drive our technological foundation to a whole new level. If we lead this revolution, which is the biggest story in the world today, we're going to have more respect as a country. We become more secure. We are not dependent on some of the worst regimes in the world; we're not dependent on anybody. We're going to provide jobs for the working class, drive innovation and build up energy security and economic security. It's how we get our groove back.

You write that today we don't have a green revolution but a green party. What do you mean?

The green revolution is still at a symbolic and hobby level. There are a lot of small things people are doing -- wonderful things -- driving a hybrid car, putting solar panels on their roof, generating their own power. But the problem is, the scale of this problem is so large. I say, "Well, here's a phony revolution. It's doing nothing toward that scale." So that's why I'm down on Earth Day concerts and more focused on the real engine for innovation and deployment, which is the marketplace.

Do you think symbolism has outworn its use? Or do you think it can be deployed in the service of trying to move things to scale?

It's a good question. What I'm trying to do is rename green. I'm a big believer that to name an issue is to own it. "The World Is Flat," you know? My problem with "green" as a label is that it was named by its opponents. They named it "liberal," "tree-hugging," "girlie-man," "sissy," "unpatriotic"; vaguely French. What I'm trying to do is take that definition and rename it "green geopolitical," "geo-strategic," "geo-economic," "patriotic." Green is the new red, white and blue. I very much want both conservatives and liberals to wear that color. If this is just a thing for liberals, it'll never scale. If it doesn't scale, it stays at the hobby level. If it's a hobby, we're cooked.

What's going to make Americans change their energy-consuming behavior?

Well, I'll give you a really lame answer. According to some reviews of the book, this answer's just not adequate! I say, I'm sorry it's not adequate, it's the only answer: It's leadership. You must have a leader who can frame this problem in an exciting way -- not just the answer to these big five problems, but this incredible opportunity. It's why I say, "Change your leaders, not your light bulbs." Not that changing your light bulbs isn't important. We've done it. Everyone should do it. But leaders write the rules and rules shape the markets -- tax incentives, carbon taxes, cap and trade -- and markets are what give you scale.

To me, the engine of this whole change is the market. We're not going to regulate our way out of this problem. We can only innovate our way out of it. But that requires rules. It requires legislators, Congress, to write different rules. There's no substitute for leadership. You and I could have the greatest green ethic in the world. We could do everything and it wouldn't make a dime's worth of difference. Markets must be shaped to scale these things down to a price where people can afford them.

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